IronPython is a new implementation of the Python language targeting the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It compiles python programs into bytecode (IL) that will run on either Microsoft's .NET or the Open Source Mono platform. Elsewhere, "A Byte of Python" is a free book (or free tutorial) on Python. It is meant to be a guide to anyone learning Python.

The speed improvements shown in this article look great! I truly enjoy programming in Python, and despite some beliefs, it isn't that slow even for applications, as long as a modern machine is used. However, a bit of extra speed from byte-compiled code cannot be a bad thing.

One thing though - the benchmarks in the article are a little confusing as the y-axis isn't noted on the graphs. At first glance, I though that IronPython was waw slower than 2.1!